Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Louisiana Tech cell research

lsrogers@thenewsstar.com
Published 12:16 a.m. CT Jan. 6, 2015

Mark DeCoster

Story Highlights

Development of learning tools for K-12 students in science labs will be the team's first target

Louisiana Tech researchers crafting artificial cells for educational and research use

Technology could benefit future generations by providing valuable educational and research tools.

A team of researchers at Louisiana Tech University developing artificial cell technology may become familiar names in educational research across the nation, providing tools to guide students through health and medicine fields.

Using National Science Foundation funding, Mark DeCoster, the James Wyche III Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University, is working to develop and commercialize artificially manufactured cells and cell platforms for educational, research and industry application.

Once developed the artificial cell technology will be paired with educational and visualization software to provide hands-on experiments and testing resources for students in all levels of education.

DeCoster's team has studied various processes of brain cells, pinpointing how they communicate with each other. Different brain cells working at different speeds are scrutinized under a microscope allowing the researchers to witness those changes. The group modeled these changes using computer software, changing cells and studying how brain cell networks fluctuate over time.

Looking at those computer-generated models, DeCoster realized if artificial cells could be created and shaped into a material that shows how cells change over time, students would have a realistic model in their hands to assist with basic and applied research of living cells.

DeCoster's team was already using 3D printers to make objects in his lab so he imagined using technology to make artificial cells. That idea became the motivation and catalyst for the NSF funding.

Plastics will be the initial base materials since they can be produced with a 3D printer, but other materials will be incorporated into the platforms such as dyes and chemicals that will define the dynamic processes. The artificial cell kits will also include instructional and experimental software based on "predator-prey" and other dynamic cell processes that will guide experimentation and testing.

The development of learning tools for K-12 students in science labs will be the team's first target, starting with outreach to local schools in north Louisiana and in the New Orleans area. As part of commercializing these products DeCoster is focused on developing a new start-up company and website, which will help expand the impact of technology.

"Our hope is that users will benefit from studying and testing how cells and their environments change by using our artificial cells and associated software to see these processes," DeCoster said. "We will initially make these artificial cells big enough so that they can be hand-held for school children and the software we are using is freely available on the web to help illustrate and visualize the ideas. We plan to target K-12 science classrooms first, but also anticipate in the future more advanced devices that can be used with instruments such as microscopy."

DeCoster believes his team has taken the first step in commercializing this technology which could benefit future generations by providing valuable educational and research tools to guide them through health and medicine fields such as tissue engineering and drug delivery.